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Dear Friends,

Sitting in Guru’s beautiful golden-domed sanctuary atop the Harimanadir (the Golden Temple in northern India) this past October, listening to the beautiful chanting of the Akand Path (continuous chanting of Sikh holy book), I watch deep peace spread over the faces of those who had come here with me from the States. It is natural to feel life so full of ease, so perfect.

Transfixed by the tones, elevated by the spirit, who could even remember the hectic lives we had all left barely a couple of days before. In a place such as this, ease is easy. We had three weeks here in this magical land, crossing from Goindwal and Amritsar to Anandpur Sahib and on to Rishikesh. As the time of our inevitable exodus neared, I could hear the nervousness creeping into their thoughts and see it on their faces.

The question held in common was simple: when you leave such a place of ease, how do you carry this ease with you? I could give them an answer, but the best answer to this is the one each person discovers for themselves, just as I did.

On my very first trip to India, in the mid 90s, I remember that thought crossing my mind. It was the point of discussion among many of us on the plane ride home -- how soon we would be coming back. And my husband and I have since returned about every other year, sometimes more often.

But I discovered after that first trip the real answer. You see I brought the Golden Temple home with me, in my heart. I discovered with glee that I could meditate every day in each separate chamber of my heart. In one, I’d be sitting on the cool marble of the perkarma (broad walkway around the pool and the temple). In another, I’d be just inside on the first floor absorbed in the music of the Ragis. In the next, I’d be sitting on the second floor near where the Granthi is reading the old volume penned by Guru Arjun Dev ji. And in the fourth chamber I’d be up on the roof sitting beside the golden dome as the first glimmer of sun struck it.

From that first trip on, my work as a teacher grew exponentially. My workshops turned into women’s retreats, the inspired teachings of Yogi ji led me to write the Womanheart book which other teachers would use in their workshops, and my life went from one easeful step to the next.

Almost without my counting, my 50s cascaded into my 60s and they rolled onward and upward. And then suddenly last year I turned 70.

I still work too many hours, burn the proverbial candle at both ends, pushing the envelope, and so forth. And I still live in the Harimandir, the Golden Temple in my heart. My voice in the morning doing my banis (prayers) blends with the voices of thousands of others, so many sitting together reciting their prayers on that second floor, some faces wet with tears of release. I am one with them and their tears and joy are mine as well.

My work now is to continue building bridges for others to walk this path to the Guru and God, and to discover what joy can sit in their hearts. In that discovery they will find there is no separation in the realm of the Divine, no East or West, no difference between one seeker or another.

That is the state of sahej for me – living in the Harimandir of the Heart.

Photo credit: Siri Chand Kaur Khalsa

This is a lead article by Sangeet for the February issue of the Sikh Dharma Ministers Newsletter on the topic of how to achieve and maintain the classic spiritual state of sahej which brings sublime ease and peace of mind. She is happy to share it with you.